On August 28th, a storm rolled into the tri-state that was bigger than anyone expected.  After a six hour down pour, the damage was felt, particularly in the St. Bernard and Norwood neighborhoods and especially on Xavier University’s campus.

Xavier University was founded in 1831 and named after St. Francis Xavier.  According to Xavier’s website, there are 4,572 undergraduates enrolled which is relatively small for a division one school.

The storm was the swan song of four straight rainy days around the Cincinnati area.

To get some more insight on what all went down, I interviewed my sister’s college roommate, Kaitlyn Fields.

“The rain was so bad that I could physically pour the water out of my shoes,” she said.

Puddles covered the campus, waterfalls were formed on the stairs throughout the campus, and cars were submerged in water on the streets.

“When I got back to my dorm I was soaked and my shoes were basically ruined,” said Kaitlyn.

The real damage was shown when the rained stopped and the sun came up the next day.  My sister told me that the ground floors of a couple buildings got flooded many buildings had leaks.  Lots of water damage throughout many halls and classrooms have caused many classes to relocate or even be cancelled.

The buildings on campus were not the only things affected by this storm.  Many of the athletic facilities were flooded as well.

The XU Men’s soccer team’s game against Dartmouth on September 5th was relocated to University of Cincinnati’s Gettler Stadium.

This did not sit well with many UC students due to the intense and biter rivalry between Xavier and Cincinnati.  Only three miles apart, these two schools have been intense rivals since the day they both were created.

This a rare occasion to see these two schools helping each other out, but due to the circumstances it had to be done.

Construction has already begun on the campus to repair the affected buildings and facilities.

“They started construction this week and my history class, which is usually on the ground floor of Alter Hall, has been relocated to a classroom in the Cintas Arena until the end of next week,” said my sister.

The storm has cost Xavier thousands of dollars and the cleanup will be going on for the next couple of weeks.  They are still working on the soccer field and many other facilities.  Until they are finished, Xavier’s men’s soccer team’s home games will be relocated to stadiums around Cincinnati and in Northern Kentucky.

“It was a crazy night,” said Kaitlyn.